Harald hour
Harald hour (born January 25 . Jul / 6. February 1899 greg. In Tallinn , Governorate of Estonia ; † 28. February 1942 in Porto Alegre , Brazil ) was an Estonian aviation pioneer.
Life and Aviation
Harald Stunden was born in the Estonian capital as the son of the locomotive driver Karl Johann Stunden and his wife Hermine Henriette Stunden (née Karre) .
As a young person he went on a trip to Japan . Hour then took part as a volunteer in the Estonian War of Independence against Soviet Russia (1918–1920). On September 1, 1919, a training department for Estonian fighter pilots was created, which also belonged to hour. From 1919 to 1925 he was a pilot in the Estonian Air Force .
Harald Stunden was also known as an athlete. In 1921, 1922 and 1923 he was in the team of Tallinna Sport Estonian champion in the bandy .
On January 24, 1926, an hourly Junkers F 13 of the Estonian civil airline Aeronaut crashed on the flight from Tallinn to Helsinki . The company's founder and director, Jakob Tillo , was seriously injured and died a week later. The four remaining passengers and pilot hour survived. Aeronaut had acquired the aircraft just a few days earlier. A year later the company was liquidated after financial difficulties.
Hour then moved to Germany for a job. In the spring of 1927 he emigrated to Latin America. He arrived in Argentina with little money, but found no work there. Eventually he got a pilot position in Bolivia . For some time he worked there under the most difficult conditions. One hour made a longer flight via Chile and Peru to Los Angeles and on to Chicago .
From 1930 to 1932 he lived in Argentina again. In 1932 he went to Brazil as a pilot . There he became one of the chief pilots of the Brazilian aviation company VARIG . In 1934 he met the Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro . On Vargas' return flight to his property in Rio Grande do Sul , 500 kilometers away , a special relationship of trust developed with the pilot hour. From then on, hour became Vargas' personal chief pilot. During the riots in 1935, an hour flew officers of the Brazilian General Staff. In 1937 he provided humanitarian aid after the great floods near Porto Alegre.
On July 19, 1938, Stunden was the first Estonian to fly more than a million kilometers in a Junkers F 13.
Hour received Brazilian citizenship. His house in Porto Alegre became a meeting place for the Estonian immigrant community in Brazil.
Harald Stunden was killed on February 28, 1942 in a plane crash in the river valley of the Rio Guaíba . The crash site is about 2.5 km from the São João departure airport of Porto Alegre. Six of the twenty occupants of the hour-controlled VARIG Junkers Ju 52 / 3m machine died.
Hour left behind his Estonian wife Alice Petersen (* 1904) and his son Tarmo. In Porto Alegre, Avenida Comandante Harald Stunden is named after him.
literature
- Aleksander Aur: "Eluvõitlus Brasiilias parema homse eest". In: Meie Maa 1/2, 1980
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eestlase ebatavalised lennud Lõuna-Ameerika kohal , accessed on May 14, 2018.
- ↑ http://www.sport24.ee/index.php?ac=otsinimidet&id=129221
- ↑ http://www.militaar.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8311
- ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hour, Harald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian aviation pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tallinn , Estonia Governorate |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1942 |
| Place of death | near Porto Alegre , Brazil |